Zhou Cheng’s strength was indeed formidable!
Although he had accidentally hit Gao Fei, the force of the blow made her lose balance and fall.
More than pain, she felt disbelief and humiliation.
Zhou Cheng had slapped her, right in front of that detestable outsider woman! Gao Fei had never even been flicked by her family since childhood. Being slapped like this—the sense of humiliation exceeded the physical pain. Gao Fei’s eyes were filled with hatred; though Zhou Cheng had struck her, her hatred was directed at Xia Xiaolan.
“Zhou Cheng!”
Fang Shizhong had let Gao Fei vent her anger with words.
But Gao Fei was struck right in front of him, not by a woman, but by Zhou Cheng!
Fang Shizhong couldn’t tolerate this. After helping Gao Fei up, he didn’t go after Zhou Cheng but aimed for Xia Xiaolan instead. Zhou Cheng wouldn’t let him get anywhere near Xiaolan, grabbing Fang Shizhong and dragging him to the edge of the training ground, where Liu Zitao stood dumbfounded.
“Go to your sister!”
Liu Zitao ran toward Xia Xiaolan on his short legs.
Gao Fei had scrambled up from the ground—soon to be a doctor, yet acting like a shrew, charging toward Xia Xiaolan.
Li Fengmei, with her strong arms, caught Gao Fei and eagerly asked Xia Xiaolan:
“Can I hit her?”
What kind of creature was this? Li Fengmei’s hands were itching.
With her robust build, she used to manage the family’s entire farmland alone. Gao Fei, weak as she was, couldn’t break free from Li Fengmei’s grip no matter how she struggled. Xia Xiaolan hugged Taotao while at the training ground, Zhou Cheng had already taken down Fang Shizhong.
What more needed to be said?
“Go ahead! But use only seventy percent of your strength, don’t damage her too badly!”
With Xia Xiaolan’s permission, Li Fengmei showed no mercy, delivering slaps with both hands.
Gao Fei wailed as Li Fengmei hit and scolded her: “Before I came, did you bully my niece too? Ptui! See if I don’t beat you to death!”
Think the Liu family has no one to stand up for them?
Think Beijing people can bully outsiders?
Li Fengmei couldn’t contain her anger, slapping Gao Fei until her face swelled like a pig’s head. Women fighting usually involved hair-pulling, scratching faces, and slapping—but how could a pampered city girl like Gao Fei match Li Fengmei, who was used to farm work?
Truth be told, watching Li Fengmei slap Gao Fei brought Xia Xiaolan immense satisfaction.
This was her aunt, so straightforward!
Xia Xiaolan felt warmth in her heart. Zhou Cheng had stood in front of her for protection earlier. Aunt Li Fengmei prevented her from getting involved, also protecting her. Not even enrolled at Huaqing University yet, Li Fengmei feared Gao Fei might cause trouble, so she quickly stepped up to fight.
Fighting at Zhou Cheng’s workplace wasn’t good, but when someone came hurling baseless insults, should they ignore it like a mad dog’s barking?
Liu Fen opened her mouth but didn’t try to stop it.
Li Fengmei had told her to stay quiet when she didn’t understand situations, and Liu Fen certainly didn’t understand this one.
She just worried about Zhou Cheng—Grandmother Yu had mentioned how strict the discipline was at his unit. That strike was accidental, but would the unit leaders believe that?
Eventually, others came to rescue Gao Fei and Fang Shizhong.
Gao Fei was dazed from the beating, her face so swollen her eyes had shrunk. Fang Shizhong had been ground into the dirt by Zhou Cheng. Zhou Cheng had taken a few kicks, none landing solidly—the shoe prints on his body were particularly visible, and he deliberately didn’t wipe them off.
Fang Shizhong’s subordinates came to rescue him. He pushed them away and limped while pointing at Zhou Cheng:
“If I don’t kill you, I’ll take your surname, you son of a bitch!”
Zhou Cheng wiped his face, covered in dirt:
“Someone like you? Forget about taking my surname as my son or grandson, you’re too worthless even to be my doorman.”
Gao Fei was stunned by the beating and took a long time to recover.
Suddenly she broke down crying.
Li Fengmei felt slightly guilty after others had rescued the pair. “Zhou Cheng, this won’t be a problem, right?”
Zhou Cheng could still manage a smile, “Auntie, what are you afraid of? We couldn’t just let you take hits without fighting back, right?”
Li Fengmei didn’t understand, but Xia Xiaolan knew what Zhou Cheng meant—this was mutual combat. When family members had conflicts, the unit usually smoothed things over, but the fight between Zhou Cheng and Fang Shizhong was more serious.
“If you hadn’t blocked earlier, you wouldn’t have hit her. I’m worried she’ll use this against you!”
“What nonsense are you talking about? Should I have let her bully you?”
Zhou Cheng had already told Fang Shizhong and Gao Fei to stay away from him. He was properly taking Liu Zitao to practice shooting at the training ground when these mad dogs came charging—of course, he had to protect his woman. Zhou Cheng believed he wasn’t wrong; hitting Gao Fei was accidental, but it felt extremely satisfying. When the unit leaders called him over, he said the same thing.
“I won’t apologize.”
The leader’s expression was severe. Another leader at the side was giving Zhou Cheng meaningful looks, but Zhou Cheng pretended not to notice.
“Zhou Cheng, hasn’t the unit been lenient enough with you? I know you didn’t want to be transferred back from the front lines, but do you think it was easy for the unit to accept you?”
Zhou Cheng hadn’t been transferred back after accumulating merits at the front.
His mental state had been off—too young when sent to the front lines, affected by those bloody scenes. Of course, Zhou Cheng wasn’t the only one affected. Those who had experienced life and death at the front lines, who had been killed while hearing gunfire, all had some psychological issues to varying degrees. Zhou Cheng was different—he had performed excellently, and the leaders above cared for him, not wanting a good seedling to grow crooked, so they directly signed his transfer orders.
This was how Zhou Cheng had returned to this unit.
His usual performance was fine, but today he had beaten Fang Shizhong badly over a disagreement and hit Gao Fei—Zhou Cheng claimed it was accidental, but Gao Fei disagreed, her pig-like face serving as clear evidence. In 1984, there were no surveillance cameras, and Gao Fei and Fang Shizhong wouldn’t let it go, with no other witnesses available.
Regardless of the reason, hitting family members at the unit created a terrible impression.
Were there men who hit women? Of course! But they usually hit their wives behind closed doors. Zhou Cheng had gone and slapped someone else’s wife. Gao Fei’s face was swollen like a pig’s head, crying incessantly—several older women had been sent to console her without success.
The leader suspected Zhou Cheng’s condition hadn’t improved, that he had lost control today without any rationality!
When told to apologize to Gao Fei, Zhou Cheng refused. He maintained it was accidental, and since Gao Fei had provoked first, he felt no need to apologize.
Just that stiff “won’t apologize” angered the leader.
He didn’t care whether the leaders above liked Zhou Cheng or who was protecting this young man. As long as Zhou Cheng was under his command, he had to make Zhou Cheng submit!
“If you won’t apologize, submit a self-criticism report and wait for disciplinary action—”
“Eh, Comrade Li, don’t be too angry. To be honest, today’s incident isn’t entirely Zhou Cheng’s fault. Old Fang’s wife is quite the troublemaker—she’s the one who said the lamb meat affected the unit badly, and when the watermelon was only given to Zhou Cheng’s people, others complained behind their backs, and she had issues with that too. She went to the training ground to insult Zhou Cheng’s future mother-in-law. How could Zhou Cheng maintain face in front of his future mother-in-law and girlfriend? There was an accidental injury in the chaos, everyone should take a step back…”
“Zhou Cheng, you choose—either apologize and write a self-criticism, or wait for our handling of this matter?”
The leader had backed down. He had eaten the lamb and still had half a watermelon on his table at home—accepting favors made one soft. “Disciplinary action” became “handling,” changing the nature of the consequence. The former would go into personnel records, while the latter’s severity depended on the specific handling method.
Zhou Cheng didn’t even think, giving a salute:
“I’ll accept whatever handling you decide!”